As the use of biophilic elements begins to gain momentum in some cities, it is evident that some governments and councils recognise the positive potential a biophilic building, neighbourhood or city has to offer. Despite this rise in implementation and a growing literature on the economic benefits yielded from biophilic elements, still many challenges remain to structurally value and systematically integrate biophilic urbanism in landscape planning, management and design.
In this section the challenges discussed are used to present impetus for the research, and the assumptions used to set the research questions. As demonstrated, sustainability in city design is both urgent and necessary, and yet there still lacks a systematic understanding, particularly economic understanding, to inform the economic case for biophilic urbanism.
As discussed earlier, the social and environmental components of sustainable development arguably should top the hierarchy of priorities, however in reality economics plays a significant role in the decision making process of most contexts.
This reality is critiqued by many (such as Hamilton171) expressing that protecting and perhaps enhancing natural assets through market value decision-making is in fact flawed. This suggests the need to shift from a narrow financially driven
economic system to one that incorporates and emphasises non-quantifiable values. Indeed, this requires an expansion upon the current economic paradigm to strengthen the role of the social and environmental components. This sheds light on a significant issue within the current decision making process; however, this issue is outside of the scope of this dissertation. Instead, this foundational research aims to explore biophilic urbanism within existing conditions; rather than critiquing and offering suggestions to improve the current state of the decision making process.
For this reason, the scope of this research becomes exploring the economic method of enquiry used to inform decisions that are often convoluted due to variations of contexts causing the ad hoc implementation of biophilic urbanism.
In light of these findings, the research problem is about disruptions, processes and decisions that occur when urban-related challenges are recognised and addressed. The focus is on the method of economic enquiry for informing biophilic urbanism in cities, where the case studies offer examples of successful implementation of biophilic elements in various contexts globally. The study draws general conclusions from the five cities to inform biophilic urbanism across all three scales – city, neighbourhood and building. Ultimately, the study aims to provide foundational considerations for the economic case for biophilic urbanism across various contexts.
This could then be studied further by interrogating the sub-components of findings in rigorous detail. Hence, this will significantly contribute to the field of biophilic urbanism.
Within this context, the overarching research problem was subsequently refined over the course of the thesis development to the following:
How can economics measure and inform the process of considering biophilic elements in cities?
With regard to terminology used in the research problem, a number of terms are used intentionally. Emphasis is placed on the whole system economic enquiry, namely neoclassical, environmental and ecological. This study is focused on capturing the characteristics underpinning decisions that have incorporated biophilic urbanism, which then becomes a pathway to further explore the potential to mainstream biophilic urbanism across cities.
The use of the term ‘mainstream’ is not intended to suggest the use of certain forms of urban nature, or a certain amount of urban nature present – rather, the use of the term in this dissertation refers to the intentional prioritisation, consistent inclusion and comprehensive application of biophilic elements in the built environment. This
means that the application of biophilic urbanism would be the default approach across most types of development (i.e. industrial, intuitional, commercial and residential) rather than the exception, making it standard operating practice. This was informed by various dictionary definitions including “the principal or dominant course, tendency or trend”172 and “a prevailing current or direction of activity or influence”.173
In light of this, this dissertation proposes that incorporating requires an intentional method of economic enquiry, to overcome barriers to decision making related to uncertainties about capital and operational costs. Hence, this study is focused on how it may occur across various contexts to break down the barrier of transferability of biophilic elements. This will be informed by exploring five global case studies - Portland, Chicago, Toronto, Berlin and Singapore to collectively inform biophilic urbanism across the three scales – city, neighbourhood and building
The rationale for selecting these cities is discussed in Section 3.5.2. The results of this study are not intended to be exhaustive, but rather offer a foundational context to the economic understanding of decision related to biophilic urbanism.
Two key aspects of the research problem are what economic theories can be used to capture the value of biophilic elements, and how has this been used to inform decisions. In particular, what can the field of economics offer to present the business case for biophilic urbanism? Has this in fact occurred in the five case studies?
The dissertation is hence about understanding and adding to conceptual knowledge associated with biophilic urbanism and the decision making process. Within this research, a sufficiently concrete comprehension of what economic theories can be used to inform decisions will be presented, particularly the theories developed to capture the various values of urban nature in the built environment. In the final chapter, this understanding will be built upon to consider implications to theory and practice, and implications for further research in the field.